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US reports China Eastern jet fuel supplies are off ahead of fatal 2022 crash

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board published data this week indicating that the fuel supply was'switched off' to both engines of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 before a 'the aircraft crashed into a hillside on southern China in March 2020, killing all 132 passengers.

The NTSB announced on Wednesday that its investigation into China's worst air disaster in 30 years found no safety concerns. Fuel switches are physical controls that regulate fuel flow into the engines on Boeing 737 aircraft. A pilot must lift the switch before switching from run to stop.

This is the first major update of investigation on this deadly crash.

China's aviation regulator decided to forgo releasing an annual report on its investigation into the crash in March. The fourth anniversary passed without any explanation of what caused the accident.

The NTSB released the data in response to a Freedom of Information Request. It came from the flight data recorder of the plane. The data showed that both fuel switches were moved from the run to the cutoff position simultaneously before the jet went down.

In 2022, it was reported that the investigators had focused their attention on the actions taken by the flight crew. They had not found any technical malfunctions.

The fuel switches of both engines were moved from their run to cutoff positions while the aircraft was cruising at 29000 feet. The NTSB reported that the engine speeds dropped after the fuel switches were moved.

The Boeing 737-800 crash, which was operated as China Eastern Flight MU5735 in China, was the deadliest air disaster China has seen in decades.

Deliberate crashes occur very rarely. In March 2015, the co-pilot of Germanwings deliberately crashed an Airbus A320 in a French mountainside killing all 150 people on board.

The actions of the captain involved in the crash of an Air India Boeing 787-8 in Ahmedabad in June that resulted in the death of 260 people has been scrutinized.

A preliminary report from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau revealed that the fuel-engine switches of the plane had been switched almost simultaneously, from run to shutoff, just after takeoff.

A source who was briefed in July on the early assessment by U.S. officials of the evidence said that the cockpit recording of the dialogue between the two pilots confirmed the view that Captain Sabharwal cut off the fuel flow to the engines.

The Chinese regulators 'have not released a complete report detailing their findings in the investigation of the crash, and have provided 'no updates of the probe since more than two year.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China declined to respond to a question posed about U.S. findings during a press conference on Wednesday.

One of two black boxes found in the wreckage is the flight data recorder. The NTSB lab in Washington was contacted to analyze the flight data recorder because Boeing is a US aircraft manufacturer. Reporting by Casey Hall, David Shepardson and David Gregorio; editing by Raju Gopikrishnan & David Gregorio

(source: Reuters)